Saturday Summer Flashback-Newport Beach August 2-3

The week after we got back from Utah was filled with every kind of appointment you can think of: doctor (to take out my staples), dental, eye, ultrasound, OB, D&C (to take care of the eternal miscarriage that couldn’t take care of itself), etc…

Needless to say, we were busy!

The next week we decided to do something a little more fun.

I had purchased a Groupon for the Newport Aquarium a couple months before, so we decided to go to Newport for a night!

Our hotel was just a walk and some stairs away from the beach.  It was great to be so close.

We even found a real star fish!! 

The next morning we went to the Aquarium.

We had a great trip! 

A couple days later Darrin left to go to scout camp for a few days.

And then we left to go to Oklahoma!

More on that next Saturday :)

Update and GWL

I am freezing!!  We turned on the heat this week, but I still can not get warm.  I’m shivering as I type this.

I’ve been teaching preschool for the last 3 weeks.  One more time on Tuesday, and I’ll be done for the year!  Danielle, I’m doing a happy dance right now!!!

My kitchen floor is super duper dirty, but I refuse to mop it when I have preschool here on Tuesday, so it’ll just have to wait until Tuesday at 12:30pm.

Last week was parent-teacher conferences.  Both kids got rave reviews.  They both have excellent teachers, which I’m grateful for.  Josh’s teacher is doing a great job keeping him challenged.  He has his own math workbook with multiplication and division problems.  He’s loving math right now, and I’m glad she’s letting him run with it.  Andrew’s teacher says he’s a quiet boy but knows how to speak up when he has something to add to the discussion.  Both kids are great examples to their classmates.

Josh is continually growing in his testimony and in the gospel.  This has to be one of my favorite parts about being a parent.  A month or so ago, Josh couldn’t sleep because he was anxious about something.  His jaw was tight, and he just couldn’t relax.  I went upstairs with a Book of Mormon, and we sat together on the guest bed reading it.  It didn’t take long for peace to come into his heart and for his anxiety to go away.  We then said a prayer together.  I felt the Spirit very strongly and knew he did to, but felt I needed to help him identify it.  The next night in FHE I asked the kids if they had ever felt the spirit.  Josh piped up and said he thought he had the night before.  I was impressed with his ability to recognize that on his own.  I was reminded of two things: the Book of Mormon can bring so much peace into our lives and the spirit testifies of truth. 

Another experience:   This past Sunday Josh couldn’t find his church pants anywhere.  I looked in all the places I thought they could be, but we still couldn’t find them.  We decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help us find them.  After a couple minutes passed, I had the thought to look in the toy bins, and there they were.  We had found them.  I know it’s a simple example, but it was a neat experience for Josh to have his prayer answered.  It’s just so fun to watch his testimony grow.

Darrin’s parents have been in England for 10 days now.  We have already seen tremendous blessings in our lives since they left.  We are proud of them and thankful for their decision to share the gospel!!

Soccer is almost over!!!!!!!  Josh has his last game tomorrow!  I’m so excited to have our evenings free again and to eat together as a family!!

Because the kids were out of school for a couple days last week, we decided to go to Washington and stay at the Great Wolf Lodge.

Our kids loved all the water slides and the wave pool.  We thought it was great family fun and will go again! 

 

Luke went trick or treating while the other kids finished swimming.

Wolf ears!!  How loud can you howl???

 

Favorites

Josh: loved being dumped on by the big bucket

Andrew: swimming and drinking hot chocolate

Luke: loved the little green slide and probably went on it 100 times until he went down head first and the lifeguard told him not to do that.  He started crying and that was the end of that.  lol.  The lifeguard felt really bad.  Luke is so tender hearted!

Dad:  the tornado

Mom:  having fun together as a family :)

Saturday Summer Flashback-Hancock Reunion July 10-17 Part II

On Thursday, July 14th, we went to Lagoon.

Grandma and Grandpa got us all red shirts to wear.

It was awesome.

I mostly spent my day in kiddie land with Luke and sometimes Andrew.

Toward the end of the day we decided to have all the red shirts ride the same ride.

We packed all the red shirts on the train, the Tidal Wave, and the carousel.

Josh and Andrew were brave and tall enough to go on Wicked this year.

It was their favorite ride.

They’re braver than me!

Earlier that day I had talked Darrin into doing the catapult ride (where you get in this ball thing, and they shoot you way up in the sky) with Jared. 

I told him his sabbatical was the perfect time to do something crazy…

so he did it!

Here’s the before…

 

and the after.

Still smiling!  And then they decided to do it again! 

It was lots of fun to watch them scream like little girls

Several more members of the fam were crazy enough to do it.

Here’s everyone that did it…even 8 year old Jason!

 

Friday, the 15th, we went to see Winnie the Pooh.

I thought the preview was better than the movie.

Then that night all the adults when out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.

And that’s all we’re going to say about that…b/c the experience was terrible.

But Cold Stone for dessert made up for it!

On Saturday we rode the Alpine Slide and Coaster again.

But this time I have pics!

Andrew and Katie got to be very good friends during the week.

It was cute!

We went swimming one last time and then headed to the park for a BBQ.

Awesome food, good soccer, a piñata, and marshmallow guns were part of the fun.

All in all, a great reunion!

Sunday we got up, packed, went to church in Lehi, and then drove to Southern Utah.

Click here and here if you missed the posts to Zion’s and Bryce!

--Hancock Family

Saturday Summer Flashback-Hancock Reunion July 10-17 Part I

Saturdays are going to be Saturday Summer Flashback days for while until I can get caught up.

Sooooo……

Our Hancock Reunion this summer was in Park City, UT.  On our way up there, we stopped at Temple Square.

Aunt Kristin met us there.

We enjoyed going in the Conference Center, Tabernacle, 2 Museums, and seeing the temple.

It was nice to show the kids a little bit about the history of the church.

 

We finally made it to Park City around 5pm. 

The kids thought it was great to wheel our luggage into the hotel!

After we got settled and ate dinner, the big moment came!!

Darrin’s parents finally got to open their mission call!

We mapped where we all thought they were going to go.

And….drum roll please….they are going to Manchester, England!

They reported to the MTC on Monday, Oct 10th (which was this past Monday).

 

On Monday the 11th we went grocery shopping and prepared to cook dinner for the fam that night.

The kids did a craft and went swimming afterwards.

 

After dinner we celebrated Grandma’s b-day.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

On Tuesday, the 12th, we went to Boondocks.

We had a blast go-carting, bumper boating, playing miniature golf, arcading, and eating pizza.

They also had a batting cage, laser tag (which my boys hated), and a big playground.

They’re all pointing to Darrin b/c he got everyone soaked….which is funny cause I thought Chad was the one that soaked everyone…it’s been too long.

Anyone remember?

After dinner we left to meet Kristin and Dallas in Park City.

We rode the Alpine Coaster and Slide with them.

Someday I’ll get the pics from my sis.

On Wednesday, the 13th, we hung out at the hotel and mostly relaxed.

The kids made cotton candy and had a paper airplane flying contest.

We also got dessert at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

YUM!

Stay tuned next Saturday for the next installment of Saturday Summer Flashbacks.

lol.

I’m sure you all can’t wait.